Delayed by COVID-19 pandemic, year 2020 marked the beginning of COFP’s third year of successfully conducting COFP Fellowship program on dialogue negotiation, conflict prevention/management and mediation. With the graduation of the second set on August 14th, 2020, the third set of COFP Fellowship Program began their module one program on September 20th 2020 at Ajuji Greenwich Hotel Abuja. Another 55 Fellows were selected for 2020/2021 Fellowship program. These participants (Fellows) cut across Muslim and Christian religious organizations including women and youth from the six geopolitical zones and from multi-faith and cultural backgrounds in Nigeria. Fellows were introduced to the fundamentals of religions in Nigeria while module two program which started on November 20th 2020 concentrated on early warning signs and early response system as well as skills in dialogue.
The third year of the Fellowship program was rounded up with the module three courses which enabled Fellows to consolidate on all the courses taken in the previous modules and ignited in them the passion for sustainable social transformation which further enhanced their capacity more through the experiences and lessons learnt during the implementation of their community peace projects. Graduation and award giving ceremony of these fifty-five Fellows took place on Sunday the 11th April, 2021 at the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (CSN), Abuja Nigeria. The graduating Fellows were full of testimonies of how the Fellowship program has strengthened their capacity to organize peace education, townhall peace meetings, interreligious dialogue workshops, peace clubs and reconciliation gatherings in their communities. We are so glad that the Fellowship Program have become a hub for bringing together multi-faith leaders and actors from all over the country to learn new skills for building positive peace within their communities.
